Miss Grand International
Miss Grand International is an annually international beauty pageant, created in 2013 by Nawat Itsaragrisil.
The current Miss Grand International titleholder is Nguyễn Tiên of Vietnam, who was crowned on 4 December 2021 at Show DC Hall in Bangkok, Thailand.
HISTORY
The aim of Miss Grand International is to promote peace and ending wars, judging the integral beauty, elegance, personality, posture, communication and security of candidates from different countries (independent or autonomous).
As with Miss World and Miss Universe, the carrier is said to be “the most beautiful woman in the world”.
The current owners of the event are Thai television channel Canal 7 and Thai entrepreneur and presenter Nawat Itsaragrisil. Together they form the Miss Grand International Organization (MGio), whose President is the same founder Nawat Itsaragrisil; the company organizes this contest and its sister contest, Miss Grand Thailand.
Foundation
The Miss Grand International beauty pageant was created in 2013.The contest was founded under the scheme of being a contest that promotes peace, the end to war is an ideal of freedom, and harmony within society, all over the world regardless of religion, race, community, family, life is simply better when you are at peace. Its ideal is the end of all forms of violence and hostility. For the sake of children and generations to follow, in the duty, national and international to rid the world of conflict and to focus efforts on improving the quality of life for all humankind.
The years 2010
During the years 2013 to 2015, Miss Grand International took place in Bangkok, where a local television station called Channel 7 and Asian media from countries such as Indonesia covered the event. It also had the important sponsorship of Thai companies and corporations such as G-Herb, Canol Hospital, Ramsita, Vanissa Clinic, Nusasiri, among others.
For 2016, the contest moves for the first time outside Thai territory, and the city of Las Vegas in the United States is the center of the contest; for this purpose the television company Vietface TV realized the relevance of the contest and assumes the rights of broadcasting for users of DirecTV in the United States in conjunction with the broadcast simultaneous to Thailand via Channel 7; also for the first time it is broadcast live via Facebook live from the social network Facebook.
In 2017, Vietnam hosts the competition as its venue, and the first edition is broadcast in high definition.
Controversies
Resignation
Since the establishment of the contest, there was one case of resignation from her title when 2015 Miss Grand International winner Anea Garcia from Rhode Island, who later placed third in the Miss USA 2015 pageant but represented another country (Dominican Republic) in the Miss Grand International. She stepped down from her reign and was replaced by first runner-up Claire Elizabeth Parker from Australia in which the contest cited « with immediate effect, Miss Anea Garcia will step down from her position as Miss Grand International 2015 due to unable to fulfill and follow the contractual agreement with Miss Grand International Organization. » The organization further stated, « her studies were in the way, making it very hard for us to schedule her activities.« Garcia was interviewed by The Providence Journal and stated that she resigned since « her safety was in jeopardy when she was sexually assaulted in South Sudan while representing the organization and [they] showed no concern about the incident » after she informed the organizers. The Miss Grand International later claimed that Garcia was « dethroned » for being « demanding and disrespectful » and for taking an « inappropriate photo while wearing the crown with a revealing slit in her dress in the upper leg-crotch area, » as opposed to the organization’s initial press release that she « stepped down. »
Parker, who succeeded Anea Garcia as Miss Grand International 2015 after her resignation, was later stripped off from her title in February 2019, almost four years after her reign ended and the organization released a statement that she’s no longer be addressed to as Miss Grand International 2015 when she decided to take part in a major national pageant title, Miss Universe Australia 2019 a preliminary of one of the Big Four international beauty pageants, Miss Universe.
Fat shaming by organizers
In 2016, Miss Grand International drew criticism after fat shaming Miss Iceland, Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir that « she’s too fat and needed to lose weight » prior to the finals of Miss Grand International 2016 held in Las Vegas on October 25, 2016. Jónsdóttir a former member of the Icelandic national athletics team was given a spot in the top 10 of the competition, but she declined. She stated, « I decided to stand by myself and women in general, I’m not going to have anyone telling me that I am too fat to look good on stage. » She eventually dropped from the pageant few days prior to the coronation. The pageant organizers then withheld her passport after she withdrew from the contest but she eventually retrieved her passport back from the organizers and said, « they [organizers] tried extortion, they threatened me by saying, you can get your passport back if you pay 3,000 dollars.«
Cultural appropriation
The pageant stirred another controversy when the organizers allowed Emily Delgado, who represented the United States in the Miss Grand International 2019 to parade in a Native American-inspired costume with headdress and walked on the stage with stereotypical gestures in which she drew ire in the social media for cultural appropriation. The mockery of the Native values was initially confirmed and denounced by Ashley Callingbull of Alberta’s Enoch Cree Nation, Canada’s first Indigenous woman to win the Mrs. Universe title in 2015.
PAGEANT
Every year, thousands of people around the world watch the event live and live from the venue. A total of 116 nations and territories have sent a candidate at least once. Some of the countries that have joined this list in recent years are Fiji (2017), Northern Ireland (2017), Laos (2017), Sierra Leone (2017), Tatarstan (2017), among others. The list of contestants adds the number of 386 women up to 2017.
The winner begins her activities as an international beauty queen as soon as she takes the title, becoming the main image of the company and sets her residence in Bangkok, Thailand, for the duration of her reign.
Selection of National Representatives
At the beginning of the contest, most of the candidates were selected by the national director. A few years later, due to the quality of the competition, many countries have their own separate competitions to select the representative for this competition, especially in Asia-Oceania and the Americas.
Each contestant represents only his country of origin and the winner of the title takes him for a period of about a year, adding to him, the year in which he won it.
System of Contest
The election of Miss Grand International is a very long process, which year after year moves a huge amount of people and money around the world.
Miss Grand International is a license that is renewed annually. In each country interested in sending a candidate, there is a franchisee who, after payment of an amount of dollars, which varies according to the size and economic capacity of each country, has the rights in that country to send a delegate under rules that the MGIO imposes.
Some of these basic rules are as follows:
- the delegate is a woman by birth.
- she has never been married.
- She have never been pregnant.
- She is the winner of the national title or, failing that, the alternate. Despite this, since it is a relatively new competition, the majority of women candidates are nominated.
- She have the nationality of the country for which you are going to contest.
- The delegate is between 18 and 27 years old on February 1 of the year in which he competes.
- She have the willingness to be Miss Grand International and fulfill what it entails.
There are other rules and exceptions to these that are adaptable to each country, depending on the particular situation of each country. Contrary to what is commonly thought, there are other issues that do not violate the rules of the competition:
- Miss Grand International does not prohibit cosmetic surgeries or cosmetic attachments.
- Miss Grand International does not ask for a minimum height.
- Miss Grand International does not prohibit a woman who has posed nude or lingerie from attending.
- Miss Grand International does not request a maximum or minimum weight for her contestants.
- Miss Grand International does not promote racial or ethnic stereotypes for the representation of a country.
A local competition is organized in each country, ranging from austere and simple events, such as auditions or castings, to large shows. There are numerous national titles that historically have the tradition of choosing the representative of that country in Miss Grand International, such as Miss Grand Thailand, Miss Deporte Venezuela (Miss Grand Venezuela), Miss Grand Holland, Miss Grand UK, Miss Grand Paraguay, Miss Grand Spain or Miss Grand South Africa.
After this process, which starts months or even one year in advance, a group of contestants is joined, ranging from 80 to 100 women candidates each year (85 in 2014). They meet at the venue three to four weeks before the final night. They carry out various activities, ranging from recordings in locations that allow promotion to the headquarters, to dinners with heads of government and events with sponsors. There is also the National Suits competition, where each delegate wears a design representative of their homeland. Two or three days before the final night, the contestants are officially presented at an event called Preliminary Competition, where each candidate parades in swimsuits (similar for all) and in evening suits (chosen to personal taste by each contestant). They are evaluated by a preliminary panel of judges, with whom they also meet personally. This panel, together with the MGIO, has the task of selecting a number of contestants who could be Miss Grand International for their consideration. After the preliminary competition the judges, the organization and the owner Nawat Itsaragrisil elect 20 quarterfinals. The ruling of this panel of judges and the organization is not released until the final night, in direct transmission to all of Thailand, and to the world via internet, where after the submission of each candidate, this selection of 20 women candidates is announced.
These 20 selected contestants are re-evaluated by a different panel of judges who issue their opinion in numerical form by means of a rating. Qualifications are eliminatory, do not average or accumulate, nor do they have to match the final result, as in each round the previous grades are deleted:
- They re-compete in swimsuit, where ten of these candidates are eliminated from the competition.
- The remaining ten continue, offering a live speech related to peace, and then undergo a new round of evening dress, where five more are eliminated.
- The remaining five are submitted to a question by one of the judges. From this part of the contest, the final positions are designated and the new Miss Grand International is chosen.
TITLEHOLDERS
| YEAR | TITLEHOLDERS | NAME | COUNTRY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 |  | Janelee Marcus CHAPARRO COLON | Puerto Rico |
| 2014 |  | Lees Daryanne GARCIA RIVERA | Cuba |
| 2015 |  | Anea WUNEEGEN GARCIA (dethroned) | Dominican Republic |
 | Claire Elizabeth PARKER (successor) | Australia | |
| 2016 |  | Ariska PUTRI PERTIWI | Indonesia |
| 2017 |  | Maria José LORA LOAYZA | Peru |
| 2018 |  | Maria Clara SOSA PERDOMO | Paraguay |
| 2019 |  | Lourdes Valentina FIGUERA MORALES | Venezuela |
| 2020 | No pageant held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pageant was held on March 27, 2021 at the DC Hall Show, located in Bangkok, Thailand. | ||
| 2021 |  | Evelyn Abena AKUABA APPIAH | United States |
| 2021 |  | Nguyễn THUC THUY TIÊN | Vietnam |
| 2022 | TBA | TBA | TBA |